“No.”
He looked down.
“I didn’t know you were sitting at home for hours.”
“I was.”
I pointed toward the door.
“I was sitting at that table.”
Nobody spoke.
Eliza quietly began crying.
Grant swallowed hard.
“I didn’t mean for it to go this far.”
I looked at the badge on his chest.
Then I remembered all those years.
The little boy who was always getting into trouble.
The teenager who made me worry.
The young man who had never seemed to know what he wanted to do with his life.
And now he was standing in front of me in a police uniform.
“You’re really a police officer?”
“Yes.”
“When did this happen?”
He looked at the floor.
“I’ve been training for it.”
“You never told me.”
“I didn’t tell anyone.”
“Why?”
His voice became quieter.
“Because I didn’t want people to treat me like I was going to fail.”
My heart tightened.
“And you thought I would?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“Not you.”
He looked directly at me.
“Never you.”
Then he said something that made the entire room go silent.
“I didn’t want you to end up disappointed in me.”
I stared at him.
“Disappointed?”
Grant nodded.
“I know I’ve made mistakes.”
He took a breath.
“A lot of them.”
I almost smiled despite myself.
“That would be an understatement.”
A few of the others laughed nervously.
But Grant didn’t.
He was still looking at me.
“You used to tell me I could be anything if I’d stop acting like I didn’t care.”
My throat burned.
“I told you that because I believed it.”
“I know.”
He swallowed.
“And I wanted to prove you right.”
He took another step toward me.
“I wanted you to be proud of me.”
The words hit me harder than I expected.
I looked at the badge again.
It caught the light.
Real.
Solid.
A symbol of everything he had worked for without telling me.
My anger was still there.
But it began to crack.
“You did this.”
Grant nodded.
“Yeah.”
“You scared me half to death.”
“I know.”
His lip trembled.
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
I looked around the room.
Five children.
A birthday cake.
Balloons.
A police officer who had apparently been part of the surprise.
And my sixth child standing in front of me, waiting to see whether his mother could forgive him.
